Floridaweekly.com - GRANT PHELAN WOULD LIKE PINCHERS Crab Shack to be synonymous with thoughts of Florida. Outback Steakhouse built its restaurant chain on the premise of a continent. He figures his family can do the same with seafood in the Sunshine State. He would like to see their homegrown business swell to 100 locations. But he doesn’t want to franchise.

“We want to stay corporately owned,” Mr. Phelan says. “No, we don’t want to franchise. You lose too much control of your organization when you start franchising it out.” Continue

AP- A couple has filed a lawsuit against a South Florida restaurant where a deck collapsed into Biscayne Bay last week during the fourth game of the NBA finals.

Articlesphilly.com -All Natalie Gunshannon wanted was to be paid a fair wage for her work, she said.

Gunshannon, 27, of Dallas Township, worked at McDonald's Restaurant on the Dallas Highway from April 24 to May 15. When she received her first paycheck, enclosed was a Chase Bank debit card with instructions on how to use it and the fees attached.

Her future earnings would be deposited into the debit card account and she could access her money from there. Gunshannon never signed the card and when she returned to work she asked her supervisor if she could be paid by check or by direct deposit. She was told the card was the only option. Continue

Businessinsider.com - Making restaurant reservations is a way of life -- but, for many consumers, so is breaking them. For every reservation that is made in some large cities, around 20% result in an empty table that the business must hope to fill with walk-in consumers. In an industry that, according to a Wall Street Journal article, often has margins as low as 3% to 5%, those are odds that some restaurants can't afford to bet on.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/economics-of-restaurant-reservations-2013-6#ixzz2WTPLTLaN

Celebdurtylaundry.com - Gordon Ramsay is facing a class action lawsuit filed by his own employees. Surprise, surprise, being a dick comes to bite you in the ass. Both current and former employees of Ramsay’s at his Fat Cow restaurant filed a lawsuit last week alleging that Ramsay failed to pay them minimum wage, failed to pay overtime wages, and also failed to provide meal periods. Continue

Sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com - CASTRO VALLEY (CBS SF) — A robbery in progress at a burger restaurant in Castro Valley was interrupted when Alameda County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed the suspect late Friday night, a sheriff’s sergeant said.

Deputies were conducting a traffic stop just after 10 p.m. on Castro Valley Boulevard when they were notified of a robbery in progress at the Boulevard Burger, located at 3714 Castro Valley Blvd., Sgt. J.D. Nelson said. Continue

CNN.com - One moment, dozens of sports bar patrons were cheering the Miami Heat as they watched the NBA finals on a deck above South Florida's Biscayne Bay on Thursday night.

The next -- just as they stood to cheer a Heat basket, a hostess recalled -- the packed deck collapsed, spilling them into water.

About 100 people were on the deck of Shuckers Bar & Grill at the time of the collapse, Miami-Dade Fire Lt. Eugene Germain told reporters. Continue

QSRmagazine.com -Forbes has called it one of 10 hot new chains from established brands, and most recently it was named a 2013 Top 50 Restaurant Brand of the Year. But it was one fateful lunch during a business trip to Texas that hooked Michael Understein on Pie Five Pizza Co.

As the first franchise owner to introduce the celebrated fast-casual Pie Five Pizza Co. concept to North Carolina, Understein's sole focus is to bring Pie Five's great-tasting pizzas topped with the freshest ingredients, baked and ready to eat in five minutes to residents in the Charlotte-North Carolina area.

While traveling in Dallas, he was introduced to the brand as he searched for a good lunch stop and walked into a Pie Five restaurant. One meal, and he was ready to open restaurants. Continue

Costar.com - When it comes to burgers, bigger is better. But when it comes to burger joints, some believe it's better not to be too big.

Take MOOYAH Burgers, Fries and Shakes, a Plano, TX-based chain with a signature build-it-yourself, double-beef patty sandwich that is adding locations across the country. Bill Spae, CEO/president of MOOYAH says 'big' box is not necessarily the 'best' box to operate within.

MOOYAH has created two restaurant models: one for larger Tier 1 and 2 markets with higher incomes and density, and one for smaller Tier 3 markets. Its newest location in Frisco, TX, is opening in a few days Continue

Orlandosentinel.com - McAlister's Deli, a fast casual restaurant, has signed agreements with four franchise groups to develop 21 new restaurants in seven states including Central Florida. Five restaurants will be developed in north Orange County by Abundant Endeavors and WNY Restaurants will open five restaurants in Buffalo, N.Y. LLD Investments will develop four restaurants in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana with the first location scheduled to open this fall in Evansville, Ind. Southern Deli Holdings, LLC, a current franchisee with 34 locations, plans to open another seven restaurants throughout North and South Carolina with Clemson, S.C. slated for an August opening. Continue